Hunter Harrassment

[ArrowFlinger]

I arrived to the UP last week to find my marker tags to my stands have been taken down. Thanks to the GPS I bought this year I was able to find my tree. Also both of my brother in laws had their tags torn down too. My one brother in law had his ground blind kicked down a little too. We know who did this and he acutally has admitted to taking the tags down. I ran into him a few years ago. He takes them down in the name if "Forest Beautification." I spent a lot of time an effort in October to get my spot set up. What do you guys think, does this fall under the hunter harrassement laws?

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>>>----> Ed (http://www.TeamTechSolutions.com)

I agree Trout, if someone can't find their stand they shouldn't blaze a trail to it. The GPS he uses should be enought.

[Markfaz]

ok...I would tend to agree with you guys about the markers looking bad if they don't get taken down, although I use the reflective markers to get to mine in the dark. I know my 60 acres pretty much like the back of my hand, but it still looks different in the dark, and I would imagine if you are hunting in the UP, it could get really confusing fast with the amount of land that is there. As long as a hunter takes down the markers after leaving, I don't have a problem with them. I tend to error on the side of safety, and if this kept a hunter from not only not finding their stand, but also possibly getting lost, it's worth the trade-off to have the markers...again, as long as they took them down after leaving. BUT....the question here is whether or not this qualifies as hunter harrassment. I think this is a question for Boehr!!

[This message has been edited by Markfaz (edited 11-24-2000).]

[boehr]

I believe that no prosecutor would issue a warrant for hunter harassment under the circumstances posted. It would be a stretch. I am guessing that this is public land. If it's private land, it would be at least trespass.

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"A particular virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of the conduct, whatever the acts, they are dictated by their own conscience, rather than that of onlookers."
Aldo Leopold

[msiebers]

I'm with markfaz on this one, I would much rather use small reflective markers like the tacks you can get, as opposed to orange survey tape.
Anybody can follow in a taped trail to your spot and cause all sorts of damage to your hunting spots and not just to your equipment. They can really mess up a good hang out for mr. big buck to if they crate enough of a disturbance.
The tacks are only seen in the dark if you dont know what to look for and if you use them properly you can follow your trail in during daylight hours too. ;)


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Mike

[marty]

If you have markers that others can see they will get tored down plus after hunting season looks pretty bad. I used those bright eyes but always keep them to the bottom of the tree so just I knew where to look for them if I had a turn I would place two on top or side by side to figure out which way to go. When you're done pop them out and you can use them next year......marty

[StrutnSpur]

I also use the tacks and remove them and put them back in their container when I am done hunting..SnS

[msiebers]

One bad thing about useing the tacks on public land, you have to be sure your not the only one marking a trail into somewhere.
My brother marked a trail into his stand loc. in Allegan state land this past oct. and when he went to follow hit tacks in the first time, the whole woods lit up. There were tacks going in ever direction you could imagine. He said it looked like christmas come early. :p

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Mike

[Dutchman]

A few years ago we had an old fellow trespassing on a bunch of interconnected farms. Well he decided to use the ribbon tape to get to his chosen spot even though he wasn't supposed to be there. Well somebody "I won't mention any names" went into the woods a little ways and started a very gentle course alteration the night before the opener,After a 1/2 mile walk his trail came out 50 yards from where he parked. needless to say he was PO'd and accused ME of doing it! After questioning him in a most innocent way, I found it worked to a Tee.He never came back!

[Mainspring]

You guys that don't like to see trails marked...picture this: You have an awesome stand location on a little island/ridge not quite one mile back in a wet cedar swamp. You're sure of the distance because a friend with more money than you measured it with his GPS one crisp October day. There are no landmarks, no traffic noises, no city lights to light up a horizon, and as a rule the canopy is too thick to see the stars, assuming a clear night. You go in before the sun comes up, and leave after sunset. How do you get from point A to point B without at least spooking all of the deer from your location, and at worst getting completely lost?

That's my situation, and I don't care if Grizley Adams himself, with divine intervention from the spirit of Fred Bear, was trying to find his way into or out from my stand, there is no way he'd do it in any kind of timley manner during the day, much less in the dark. It takes me not quite an hour to make that little walk, with a marked trail. And I've been doing it on and off for about 20 years.

Now picture this: You're hunting my stand for the day, and use the marked trail to get back into it. Then someone comes along to "beautify" the area, and removes all of the trail markers. Where does that leave you? I'll tell you where it leaves you...with a face and two hands full of cuts and scratches, soaking wet, bruised shins, and an overall foul demeanor and disposition, trying to light a fire on a blowdown (since there is no place else to light a fire)waiting for the sun to come up because both of your compasses are so fogged from the inside that they are useless. Hopefully, you haven't broken a leg or otherwise injured yourself yet, and have enough wool on (which will still insulate even when soaked with your sweat and the swamp muck) to keep from freezing to death before the search parties find you in the morning.

Please don't be so quick to judge when you see a marked trail.

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If you continue to think as you've always thought, you'll continue to get what you've always gotten...Is it enough? http://cgi.tripod.com/smilecwm/cgi-bin/s/ut1/mgwhore.gif

[deerless]

I hate those little markers. However, I do understand their purpose. Some people never learned how to use a compass correctly. I use my compass. It has never fogged over and works every time. This may be because I have a good one. One drawback is that they are risky in the U.P. due to the high levels of copper that tend to throw them off (I have heard). Also, if I were to use the tape, I would take it all down after the season. The way I see it the tacks and tape are litter and their users could and should be ticketed if they don't clean up their mess.

Deerless

[ArrowFlinger]

Mainspring, you hit the nail on the head. Last year I got a little turned around trying to get out on my last day. Part of my mistake was trying to carry all my gear at once. I went up to the UP in Oct. to get everything set-up. I frazzled enough to spend $300 on a GPS as an extra precaution. Glad i did or all of our hunt would have started off with a very foul mood.

[Kevin]

I am a new proponent of quality compasses. I had sort of a hairy couple hours at dusk this past fall. I had a $3.00 compass that I thought would be just fine. As I can best figure it, I juiced the compass somehow setting it on a running CD writer in my office in my house. So here is what happened.
I do my best to strike as far into the public lands I hunt as possible to avoid other hunters. This also means of course, that out of courtesy, I try to be first in and last out. Well fairly early on in the season, I was carrying the stupid useless compass, and I knew where another hunter might still be sitting, so on my way in I tried to skirt a wide path around his stand. Long story short I got very lost, and darkness fell. I will not say that I reached a panic state, but my backpack grew very heavy on my back and I was sweating profusely under my hat. I eventually calmed down, climbed a tree, got my bearings, and picked 25 yard increments to work toward, keeping myself going in the right direction (I knew I was parked on the road to the East). It was pitch dark before I reached my jeep. I was pretty angry with myself and pretty beat but I learned my lesson. I will not overextend myself again without a good compass. It is amazing how far a mile seems when you are solidly lost.